Attorney General Eric Holder waded deeper into the controversy over the George Zimmerman case and verdict on Tuesday, suggesting a national review of "stand-your-ground" laws during a speech before the annual NAACP convention in Orlando.

The NAACP is at the forefront of the effort to pressure the Justice Department to bring federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Holder confirmed on Monday that his department is reviewing that possibility, citing his personal concerns about the case.

He went a step further on Tuesday, weighing in for the first time on controversial state-level laws on self-defense.

"Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation's attention, it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods," Holder said.

The comments were a reference to so-called "stand-your-ground" laws, which in Florida and other states allow people to use deadly force if they think their life is being threatened.

The role that law played in the Zimmerman shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is a matter of dispute.

But Holder suggested the laws encourage confrontation, saying there "has always been" a legal defense for using deadly force when retreat is not an option.

"But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely," Holder said. "By allowing -- and perhaps encouraging -- violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety."

He called for a "hard look" at the laws. The crowd applauded as he said "we must stand our ground."

The "stand-your-ground" laws have been a popular target ever since the Martin shooting, and the pressure has intensified after Zimmerman was acquitted on Saturday.

This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. -Ben Franklin

The attorney general of the United States must be really busy these days. Too busy, apparently, to have noted that Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law played absolutely no role in the murder trial, much less the exoneration, of George Zimmerman. Details. The AG spoke to a meeting of the NAACP in Orlando this afternoon and declared his distaste for SYG: “These laws try to fix something that was never broken. The list of resulting tragedies is long and, unfortunately, has victimized too many who are innocent.” Any opportunity to erode Americans’ ability to exercise their right to armed self defense must be exploited. Better the dark days of ‘duty to retreat.”And who better to lead that charge than the man who wants nothing more than to use government-funded schools to “brainwash people,” making guns socially unacceptable.

We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists. - Patrick Henry

Apparently it isn't. I'm on the front porch, and the oly other person is a neighbor. And she only yelled back "time for what?"

This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. -Ben Franklin

Is there anyone attached to this administration who isn't a fucking piece of American-hating shit?

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Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, told MSNBC’s Tamron Hall on March 21, 2012, that the law protects people who are attacked, but it does not protect aggressors. "There’s nothing in this statute to protect people who are pursuing and confronting other people," he said.

Hall asked Baxley about crime statistics that show justifiable homicides are up in Florida, but Baxley said that’s only one statistic.

"What we’ve learned is if we empower people to stop bad things from happening, they will," Baxley said. "And in fact, that statistic is coupled with another statistic. That is the fact that we’ve had a dramatic drop in violent crime since this law has been in effect."

In an interview with PBS Newshour the next day, Baxley added that he thought the law "has saved thousands of people's lives."

Here, we’re checking whether there’s been a dramatic drop in violent crime since the law went into effect. To do that, we turned to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s crime statistics and various news reports about violent crime in Florida.

We found that violent crime has dropped significantly in Florida since 2005. (The law went into effect Oct. 1, 2005.) We calculated the drop in violent crime rates, to account for population growth. In 2006 and 2007, violent crime rates were up just slightly up compared with 2005. In 2008, the violent crime rate began declining. By 2010, the violent crime rate had dropped 23 percent since 2005. (See chart below.)

But that’s not the whole story. We also looked at crime rates for the five years before the "stand your ground" law started, and we found violent crime was declining during those years as well. Between 2000 and 2005, violent crime dropped 12 percent.

When we turned to news reports, we found many stories documenting drops in crime nationwide over the past decade. Experts have been surprised that the numbers have continued dropping through a historic recession.

Why are rates declining? Nobody can say for sure. The theories are highly diverse, to say the least, and some are fairly controversial.

Here are just a few we ran across: Police are getting better at using technology to prevent crime. More people are in jail and therefore can’t commit crimes. Online banking and debit cards mean people don’t have cash at home. Abortions have suppressed the number of poor, unsupervised young men. Low inflation makes stealing less attractive. President Barack Obama is setting a positive example for African-American youth. New gun laws establishing the right to carry are deterring criminals. Joblessness means people are at home watching the neighborhood. Extended unemployment benefits and food stamps mean people don’t have to turn to crime.